Student Stabbed In Argument Over Girl

HAMPTON — A 17-year-old male student was in fair condition Tuesday after being stabbed in the stomach by another student during an argument at Hampton High School Monday, police said.

A 16-year-old male student was charged with malicious wounding and carrying a concealed weapon in connection with the stabbing, said Detective Lt. C.L. Fullman.

Fullman declined to release the names of the Hampton High students because of their ages.

The stabbing was the first serious incident involving a weapon at the school since an 18-year-old male student was shot by off-duty sheriff's deputies after he brandished and fired a gun outside of the school in January.

The suspect in Monday's stabbing has been suspended and will be recommended for expulsion, said Jerry Sandford, a school spokesman.

The stabbing occurred in a hallway containing science and home economics classes about 9 a.m. while students were changing classes. The two boys apparently began arguing over a girl, and the younger boy pulled out a 4-inch knife and stabbed the other student in the stomach, said Lt. Tom Townsend.

"As far as we know, the knife didn't strike any vital organs," Townsend said. The in jured student was in Sentara Hampton General Hospital Tuesday for observation and is expected to be released today, he added.

"It wasn't a critical-type of injury as far as we understand," Fullman said.

The knife was recovered by police, according to Fullman.

Although there were witnesses to the stabbing, most students had already gone into their next class and were unaware that it happened, school Principal Lowell Thomas.

Assistant Principal Gordon White happened to be near the scene of the stabbing and helped the injured student to his office, Thomas said. The student charged with the stabbing was apprehended by security personnel.

Thomas said there are no plans to increase security at the school. There are now two "staff aides" patrolling the hallways, he said. Anything short of searching every student would not have prevented Tuesday's stabbing, he added.

"It was apparent that this young man was going to take action, and when you have a situation like that ... it would have been very hard to prevent that from happening," Thomas said.

Deborah Spencer, president of the school's PTA, said she is comfortable with how the situation was handled.

"Certainly as a PTA and mothers and parents the situation concerns us," she said. "I don't see how it could have been avoided ... There's always a concern, but you can't have a monitor for everyone out there."

Thomas said the school continues to stress to students that the quickest way to end a school career is to carry a weapon to class.

In another incident involving a weapon at the school this year, a female student was expelled from the school in mid-October after a knife was found in her purse, said Thomas.

On Jan. 30, Moses Lawson III, who displayed and fired a gun in the parking lot of the school, was shot by sheriff's deputies who said Lawson acted in a threatening manner.

The shooting occurred after Warwick High School beat Hampton in a basketball game. Lawson was sentenced to two months in jail for the incident.